Is there a God? (comments)

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It seems that there is so much discussion regarding the nature of God; does a God exist; can a God exist. It would seem that the answers to these questions are quite simple and are dependent on one’s personal belief. If there is indeed a supernatural, infinite being how can we with natural and finite minds expect to express any reasonable explanation. Was Jesus divine or created for example. The mainstream Christian doctrine is that he was divine; a part of the Godhead. However, if God is indeed all powerful and not bound by the constraints of space and time, could He not therefore create an additional part of the Godhead? It simply comes down to a matter of what one chooses to believe. This line of reasoning could be substantially extended but it will end here. Although it seems obvious to me that there is a God, compassion for all living creatures under ALL circumstances is the only way to find peace in this life and perhaps a next life. By compassion I refer to a strong feeling of sympathy or sorrow for the misfortune of others. At times we are not able to act on this compassion. At others we may be forced into a situation that may even increase another’s sorrow or misfortune. Neither of these should be used as reasons to withhold our compassion.

Hi Chooley, thanks for visiting and making a comment. I think there is so much discussion because (1) many people want to know what’s true, but can’t find enough certainty, and (2) many other people think they know and have strong opinions about it.

A long time ago, my cousin and her husband and her two babies perished in a house fire. My cousin was found with the two babies in her arms just a few steps away from the front door. As a clergyman, I was asked to give the eulogy. Rather than share happy memories, which seemed would trivialize what had happened, I tried to tackle the problem of evil head on.

I said essentially two things. One was that evil was somehow wrapped up with the mystery of creation, that perhaps for God to create something outside Himself He had to create something totally different from Himself, opposite of Himself. Thus, the personal God created a largely impersonal universe. The purposeful God created randomness, arbitrariness, etc. Essentially what I tried to say was that a key of understanding creation may lie in the thought that God was so powerfully self-contained, with all of His divine attributes, that the only thing He could create was something unlike Himself. Thus with the gift of individual life, of being in some sense separate from God as his creation, came suffering and death, random and arbitrary, as inherent consequences.

The second thing I said was that it was, for many like myself, the unspeakable tragedies like this house fire that compelled rather than repelled belief in God. Only God could set something like this right. It would take God to redeem the senseless death of this beautiful young family and the endless, countless instances of unendurable pain and suffering that humanity has suffered since creation. For some of us at least, these tragedies drive us to God, not away from Him. It’s believe or harden your heart or go mad.

The eulogy was of some comfort to my relatives, so I’m glad God gave me the strength to give it. Whether the theology is sound or not is another thing.

Hi Newton, that’s a very sad story. I think you are onto something in saying that anything God creates is not God and therefore limited and at least potentially faulty. And also that, in the end, belief makes sense of things in one way better than any other view, even if it can’t explain why. Thanks for the thoughts.

For the past month; I’ve been struggling with my very first crisis of faith. As a ‘cradle Catholic’, I always thought I had it easy. People had to struggle to find belief; while they came ‘easily’ to me.
Thankfully, seems I’m forced to fight for my belief in God.

This page; by summing up everything quite simply and nicely; and keeping out the atheistic hate vitriol; really helped me in the closing stages of my crisis.
Here’s hoping I can go back to my fruitful spiritual life sooner rather than later.

Thanks for your kind comments. I’m so glad you found this page helpful. I too hope you can find answers to the dilemmas you are facing. Please feel free to comment or discuss anything that would be helpful.

Hello,
I grew up in the Catholic church, but at age 15, I reasoned my way out of it. I was the only person I knew who did not believe in God. I have never found anyone who can justify their belief in God. I have browsed through the arguments here, and they seem quite week. I don’t think not having a complete explanation for the first 1/100,000,000 … seconds of the Universe leads to the necessary existence of the God of the Bible.
The problem with all of the apologists that I have come across is that they throw up straw men and then tear them down with paper thin arguments.
So…. I am looking for someone to actually engage in a discussion about their belief in God, on a rational level. You can reply to my email if interested.

I’m sorry you found the reasons I have given for believing in God to be quite weak. I did the best I could, and I find them quite convincing. I guess, as the cliche goes, one man’s meat is another’s poisson!

I would be happy to discuss some of these matters with you, to see whether we can find some common ground, or at least understand each other. I will email you as you suggest. Thanks.

If there is a creation ,undoubtedly there should be a creator..To put it succintly man is the creation of god.Is there god -the statement is shallow and does not deserve any worthwhile comment for the simple reason that god exists in our midst in various forms of worship.Some call it nature, certain others worship the human form of god and some others adopting idol less form of obeisance.Many of them through prayers and worship of their chosen god get immense peace and bliss.We have to experience it before we talk about the existence of god or not. In this problem ridden world the only recourse to surmount this grave problems facing man is divine peace and happiness-k.mohan

Thanks for allowing me here to express my mind. You are skewing the war numbers by almost 100%! Nice try! Religion is the single worst thing in the world!!!!! I am not saying if there is a god or not, or several! Doesn’t matter! And if you think it does, you are only proving my point more…Those (fill in the blank religion other than your own) are ruining the world! If you do believe god’s word, then start following the golden rule instead of racist crap! I am getting really tired of this, and might start disassembling this planet if you all don’t come to your senses! Signed, I Might Be God!

Hi, thanks for your comment, I really appreciated the thoughts and the humour!

I’m not sure what you mean by “skewing the war numbers by almost 100%”, but if you are referring to the page on religious wars, then it is based on good research by experts. If it was different to your perception or expectation, then that is what research is for!

But I agree with your preference for “golden rule” rather than “racist crap”, so we are on the same page there.

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